


Best Friends

by Churbooseanon



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-29
Updated: 2014-05-29
Packaged: 2018-01-26 23:48:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1707038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Churbooseanon/pseuds/Churbooseanon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Washington goes to find answers at the sight of North’s death. And maybe finds more than he can handle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Friends

“Man, what are we even fucking doing here? This is just some deserted base full of nothing.”

“It may be abandoned, Private Tucker, but we won’t know whether it’s full of nothing until we check it out. Now I would suggest you get around to checking it out.”

“Why should I?”

“Your other option is to make sure Caboose doesn’t get himself into any trouble,” Washington said, and before the word ‘trouble’ even got out Tucker was making a beeline for the abandoned and quite likely deserted base.

Why were they back here? It was a question Wash had been asking himself from the very moment that he’s started them on the journey back to this place. Well, back for him, here for the first time for them. What had been the point of coming back to a place he was certain would have been stripped clean by the official recovery squads after he’d declared the place safe and moved on in his pursuit of the Meta. He had claimed that since it was the only place they could reasonably reach that they should check it out for additional supplies and the like. The truth was more like… He’d needed to be here, to apologize to North.

How hadn’t he seen it coming? How hadn’t any of them? South was conniving, which was putting it nicely. Once the real threat of the Meta had started, they should have moved North somewhere safer. But no one had thought it was necessary. North would protect his sister with his life, and his unique combination of Theta and the Domed Energy Shield should have been enough to protect him. The Meta never should have been able to touch North. Unless South was there, unless he was trying to protect his sister. What idiot had the bright idea of letting North throw his life away for the sake of that blood thirsty bitch. If only someone had shot her sooner…

“Oh, oh, Mister Agent Washington Church Sir, what should I be doing?”

“Um… Just stay with me and keep an eye out for bad guys,” Washington answered, not really having a better task for Caboose. For all that Caboose was enthusiastic and willing to help, Wash still wasn’t sure what to do with him. He’d been… hurt by the loss of Epsilon, and he’d seemed to latch on to Wash for reasons he couldn’t quite understand. Maybe it was the armor. Maybe it was because he was in command. Either way he never knew quite what to think of the… unique soldier.

“Oh, like that one? But maybe he won’t hurt us because he’s taking a nap. No… That isn’t a person. It’s just his pieces. Silly me. Apparently they take nap time at the same as no pants time here. Why do people just make up times like that?”

It wasn’t pieces of a body, Wash knew that before he even turned around to follow Caboose’s pointing arm. No, they were likely bits and pieces of armor that the Recovery Team had thought too unimportant to gather up. They were why he was here. What he hadn’t had time to face last time, and hadn’t had the balls to since then. He’d betrayed North’s memory when he’d joined up with the Meta all for the sake of his freedom. The reason he’d come here was to try and unburden himself of that betrayal, that failing. And the worst part was that he knew that North would have forgiven him. That was just the kind of guy his friend was.

They’d taken all the larger pieces that remained from the Meta savaging North intending to get at his gear. The body, of course, counted as a larger piece. But so had most of the armor. Most was, of course, the operative word. Caboose had seen some of it, and the sight of the dark purple of the back half of North’s helmet made his heart skip a beat.

“I’ll check it out. Watch out for anyone sneaking up on us.”

“Okay. I can do that. I’ll sneak up on them sneaking up on us. Here I go. Sneaking. Sneaking…”

He waited until Caboose was a decent bit away and then moved to bend over the pieces of armor. There was little more than scraps in most places, leaving Wash little choice but to lean over and pick up the chunk of helmet. If only he’d thought to come here earlier, Recovery Command be damned. North could have been the key to stopping Meta before this all went wrong.

“I… Should have done something different,” he told himself, as if it would matter.

“Voice authentication accepted. Playback begins.”

Wash actually jumped as he heard Theta’s voice whispering to him from the remains of the helmet. Maybe he shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was. Theta was long gone, and yet here he was, listening to that shy little voice pouring out of the speakers remaining to the helmet. What he wasn’t sure of was how. Yes, their helmets had separate energy systems that could continue through a lot of different malfunctions, but he hadn’t heard of them keeping something going this long after such damage. But with all of that said and done, there was a message waiting for him, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear it.

“Hey Wash,” North’s voice rang out, fading at the end of the ‘hey’ and crackling over ‘Wash.’ The power cells were failing, and he hoped they would survive long enough for the full message to play.

“I guess if you’re hearing this I’m already gone. Sorry about that, man. Weird, I kind of thought that out of the three of us, I’d be the one to last the longest. No offense to York, but Delta was a little too straight laced to think his way creatively out of the threat Maine posed. And you… Well, I can’t help but keep thinking about you as the rookie. Do you remember how freaked you were when we told you about what happened to Georgia? I thought you were going to refuse to use the jet packs again after that. And me… Well, I had the shield and Theta. We were an unstoppable combination.”

Wash knew that, he’d seen just how insane the shields Theta had helped South use were. They would have been perfectly safe if it wasn’t for…

“Don’t blame her, okay?” North asked, cutting right into his line of thought. He’d always been good at that. Like Wash’s own kind of big brother, especially when it mattered. “She’s always been like that, and I was never one to leave her on her own. I did what I had to as her brother. Anyway… the reason I wanted to leave this was because I knew you’d be blaming yourself. But listen, rookie, it’s like this: you’re not perfect. None of us are, or ever were. I mean, look at me. I was hoping Meta would come for me instead of anyone else. Maybe I could have taken him on. Looks like I couldn’t. So I’m not going to be able to bail you out of whatever you’re going to mess up in the future. You’re going to have to make it on your own no matter what happens. I’ve got faith you can do it, man. You always had potential. Oh, and Wash…”

The batteries failed, not spectacularly, but by flickering slowly out of existence. Wash was left with the voice echoing in his head, and the message unfinished.

“It’s nice to hear from your best friend after they’re gone.”

Wash almost jumped out of his armor at Caboose’s comment. Maybe the kid wasn’t too bad at sneaking.

“I wish Church had left me a message too.”

“He… It… That…”

Caboose just shook his head and sighed. “Don’t be ashamed. Best friends are important, even after they leave. They make us have something to fight for. I used to have something to fight for. Now I have a memory.”

With that Caboose wandered away, off to do whatever it was that he did. Wash was left standing there, with the helmet piece in his hand, realizing that he too had a memory to fight for now. More than one.


End file.
